A step by step guide to modern digital marketing

RESOURCES FOR YOU • Startup Saturday – part of Headstart Network, held on the second Saturday of every month, across Bangalore, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Mumbai • OME community – an

Modern Digital

Marketing

Table of Contents

flexible with short-term strategies

15

2 Surround yourself with smart people 5 13 Cut the emotion out of decisions 16

4 Build loyal fans on your own property 7 15 Show the way and then get out of it 18

5 Build your plans and campaigns on solid

data

6 Create content for a highly targeted

audience

7 Invest your time and effort towards

long-term goals

8 Train and mentor others 11 19 Take ownership of your mistakes 22

9 Ignore the haters Be open minded about

About Suresh Babu

Suresh is the Founder and CEO of Web Marketing Academy

(WMA), Bangalore which offers certification courses

in digital marketing The institute trains students,

professionals & corporate personnel

An enthusiastic digital marketer, Suresh has been in the field

since 2002 A lot has changed in the last 10-15 years - from

online marketing strategy to tools to measuring ROI - and

he’s had to keep pace as well as anyone

In this eBook, he shares some of his learning and gives

actionable steps and resources that’ll make you a modern

digital marketer as well.

suresh@webmarketingacademy.in

1 Learn to adapt

Adapt to the latest trends Don’t be afraid to try the newest marketing tools and platforms Never mind if you fail in your initial attempts;

learn from your mistakes and correct the course

Find a way to use latest trending platforms to your and your

customers’ advantage

RESOURCES FOR YOU

 Periscope – live broadcasting mobile app for Android and iPhone

 Blab.im – a live streaming platform that enables public video chat with 4 participants at a time

 Meerkat – live streaming app that made it big at SXSW 2015

 Keep talking and interact with people tuning in

2 Surround yourself with smart people

As someone real smart said,

if you’re the smartest in your

company, move out

Associating with smart

people has an induction

effect – some of their skills

and energy rubs off on you

and you find greater

momentum for your ideas

and thoughts It’s

synergetic

Learn from the smartest

people around the world as

well through videos,

podcasts, blogs, webinars,

workshops, and more That’s

the gold of the internet age

– no boundaries to learning

RESOURCES FOR YOU

• Startup Saturday – part of Headstart Network, held on the second Saturday of every month, across Bangalore, Delhi,

Hyderabad, Kolkata and Mumbai

• OME community – an online marketing enthusiast’s group started by me; that has some networking and upskilling events every month

• Events around Social Media Day

and Social Media Week (SMW) – held across cities in India and the world SMW 2015 is scheduled

 Talk to some of the speakers

 Talk to other people attending the event You never know how

connections work out sometimes!

3 Don’t rely on any one channel alone

Never ever put all your eggs

in one basket And don’t get

too comfortable

What’s working today may

break tomorrow Keep an

open mind and jump onto

newest platforms used by

your target audience If it

works for them, you need to

ramp up as well At the

same time, let go of what’s

not getting you any ROI

Use multiple marketing

channels to get your

customer’s attention

Use email, social, mobile –

whatever it takes to deliver

value, build loyalty and

achieve your business

 Build a content calendar for all your marketing channels

RESOURCES FOR YOU

• Run email marketing campaigns – MailChimp

• Experiment on social media –

Facebook , YouTube , Twitter ,

Pinterest , Instagram , Snapchat ,

4 Build loyal fans on your own property

Keep in mind that there’s a

difference between a rented

place and home You got

great engagement going on

your Facebook, Google+,

YouTube, Twitter, Snapchat,

Pinterest, Instagram … (the

list could get endless) social

pages? That’s great But

they’re rented places at the

mercy of the landlords

Your website is your home

That’s where you need to

focus – get the visitors

there, convert leads,

engage, nurture, retain and

delight – all on your website

RESOURCES FOR YOU

• Create landing pages that convert on your website –

Unbounce

 Mobile Friendly Test to analyze the mobile usability of your website and improve on it

 PageSpeed Insights to check the web performance of your

website on mobile and desktop

CHALLENGE YOURSELF

 Brainstorm on downloadable content for lead generation

 Create effective landing pages

 Run ads to promote your website, blog and other resources

 Test your website on desktop and mobile devices

 Analyze your website usage

on Google Analytics

 Build a content calendar to

be a consistent content publisher

5 Build your plans and campaigns on data

Embrace web analytics as your

best friend No digital

marketer is any good till he or

she has grasped the true

essence of analytical tools

Web analytics is not

clickstream alone, its

intelligence delivered via

platforms you need to master

and derive sense from

Your marketing campaigns will

help you achieve business

objectives better if you

understand the driving forces

on your website, the behavior

of your customers, the

acquisition patterns on online

and offline campaigns, and of

course, the end ROI – cost

versus revenue – all of which

will come from digital

analytics

RESOURCES FOR YOU

• Google Analytics – powerful free tool for your website, mobile app and other customer touchpoints

• Facebook Insights – to understand your Facebook audience

• Twitter Analytics – to discover content that engages people

• Social media analytics - free and paid for all social media networks

CHALLENGE YOURSELF

 Look at the analytics data of your website, social media networks, etc

 Check for the most viewed blog post in the last 90 days

 Reconsider your digital marketing strategy based on the user behaviors

observed

 Increase or decrease budget, change times of launch, revamp content strategy and content formats – optimize your campaigns based on the analytical results

 Remove channels that do not generate results (assuming you’ve give it adequate time)

6 Create content for a highly targeted

audience

Not every piece of content

needs to serve the whole of

your target audience In

fact, if you want higher

returns on your content

marketing strategy, segment

your customers and build

content for niche groups

For example, we run a

training academy for digital

marketers but we published

a blog post on travel advice

for people attending events

in India That got a lot of

eyeballs and generated

traffic to our website, and

leads

RESOURCES FOR YOU

• Google Instant - a feature that predicts what you're searching for and shows results as you type

• YouTube Trends Dashboard – find what videos are trending in

countries and specific age groups

 Take one question and create a video, blog post or other form of content to provide a solution

 Use Google Instant – type your keywords slowly letter

by letter and see the suggestions that come up

 Use paid mediums (Facebook ads, etc.) to promote useful, engaging content for your target audience

7 Invest your time and effort towards

long-term goals

It’s tempting to take

shortcuts to achieve

short-term goals Skip the edit and

publish that article on time

to meet the weekly goal Use

black hat SEO to get the

needed traffic and show the

client your effort got results!

STOP!

Taking shortcuts is a waste

of time and money Not to

mention, the potential blot

on your hard-earned

reputation! Why take that

risk?

Instead, focus on long-term

goals, work on a long-term

strategy and plan, and then

execute the plan

meticulously

RESOURCES FOR YOU

• Study Webmaster Guidelines to ensure you do not violate any, accidentally or intentionally

• Google Search Console – to ensure your SEO efforts are working

• Specific resources to improve ranking of content on specific platforms – YouTube, Linkedin,

Instagram , etc.

CHALLENGE YOURSELF

 Optimize your content across your owned assets –website, social media, etc.,

to improve ranking organically

 Keep an eye out for latest trends

 Experiment with new marketing channels and content formats

 Create some videos – team, CEO, etc., and use them to engage your audience

8 Train and mentor others

We like to think we’re

indispensable but a true

leader is one who can make

his team function just as well

in his absence

Train others to take on

responsibilities and execute

tasks with complete

ownership Be a support and

guide but don’t hand hold

RESOURCES FOR YOU

• Linkedin post – Read up on how mentoring impacts both student and teacher

• Read up on how to be a good

mentor

• Talk to your own mentors

CHALLENGE YOURSELF

 Spend 10-15 minutes a week to mentor, train your friend or colleague in

something that you are good at

 Check your Linkedin emails Sometimes people just need guidance

 Follow up

9 Ignore the haters, be open minded about

the criticism

In the age of social

networking, haters and trolls

find it only too easy to be

spiteful and negative Ignore

it This is the negative side

of the internet Don’t give it

attention and focus on the

positives

If you receive negative

feedback and criticism,

analyze it objectively If

there is a grain of truth in

the criticism, accept your

mistake, address the

problem, improve and keep

going forward

RESOURCES FOR YOU

• Social listening tools to hear what’s being said about your brand – TweetDeck , Google Alerts , Icerocket , Social Mention ,

 Check for misspellings, positive and negative sentiment

 Search on relevant industry keywords

 Respond to good and bad comments – with bad being more important

 Incorporate learning from negative comments

 Participate in a conversation

10 Don’t ever complain - in online or

offline mode

Never mind how

disappointed, angry or hurt

you are, don’t let it out as a

grouse – on online or offline

media

Present your case calmly and

in a positive manner,

whether it’s to your senior or

junior Complaining is finger

pointing That’s negative It

creates a perception of your

character

Be the problem solver or the

problem manager, never the

grouse

If its excess work that’s

bothering you, find a way to

increase productivity

RESOURCES FOR YOU

• Use social media tools to schedule posts – Hootsuite ,

Buffer , etc.

• Use collaboration tools such as

Evernote , Trello , Slack , DropBox ,

Google Calendar , etc to increase efficiency

CHALLENGE YOURSELF

 Identify one problem that hampers your productivity –time management, content organization, team

communication, etc

 Find a tool to help – Google Calendar, Evernote, Trello, etc

 Set up tasks on the tool and test for a week Measure the impact

 Delegate tasks where your expertise is not required

11 Keep your cool in critical situations

Unpredictable things can and

will happen The Wi-Fi

network, during your

workshop, won’t work! The

mike you requested won’t be

available! This is the time not

to hit the panic button

Recently, we arranged for a

conference at a large

company About 100 people

were expected to arrive At the

last minute, the company

could not make the conference

room available The presenters

were at a loss When they

called, I asked them to look at

the nearest hotels and find

space Meanwhile, take the

few people who had arrived

out for coffee and get them to

network

When you panic, your brain

freezes A critical situation is

the worst time for that to

happen!

RESOURCES FOR YOU

• Observe and learn from your mentors

• If your job is high stress and managing crisis is part of the game – get crisis management training

• Find what works for your mental peace – yoga, music, medication, walking, etc.

• Read books, watch videos, study how crisis is managed across corporate

CHALLENGE YOURSELF

 Next time, something unpredictable happens, resolve to manage it

 Anticipate things that can go wrong and have a Plan B

 Take a deep breath and focus all your energy on working out a solution

12 Have long-term objectives but be flexible

with short-term strategies

My long-term plan for the

year was to evangelize

digital marketing and get

more students on board I

had considered a number of

strategies to achieve these

goals We had a plan set out

Three months back, I got

onto Periscope Before I

knew it, Periscope became

the channel for me to spread

awareness about digital

marketing – which in turn

brought more students into

WMA as well We also began

podcasting actively,

something we hadn’t really

considered at the beginning

of the year

Our long-term objective

RESOURCES FOR YOU

• Build a marketing plan – Should a marketing plan be fixed or

 Write all the steps to achieve the short-term goals – daily, weekly, monthly

 Build a path showing how your short-term goal will help you reach long-term objectives

 Revise short-term goals every month based on outcome analysis of previous campaigns, market changes, internal

13 Cut the emotion out of decisions

I know how hard this can be

Sometimes, situations can

get really tough Whenever

people get together, tricky

situations are bound to

arise You may be riled about

something yourself But how

do you deal with it?

My advice: First and

foremost, accept your own

emotional state Understand

that you need a breather

Where possible, take a

timeout Gather information

from multiple sources and

analyze the data without

emotion

When a timeout is not

possible, take a deep breath

and be as objective as

possible You’ll get better

with experience, no

shortcuts here

RESOURCES FOR YOU

• Remember history – how many bad situations could have been avoided if leaders did not get emotional? Why Good Leaders Make Bad Decisions

• Be emotionally intelligent, not emotional Read up on How Successful People Stay Calm

• If you must show anger, focus on the action, not person

 Listen to yourself talk if you have time for it before a press release, meeting, etc

 If you’ve written in the heat

of the moment, save the email or Facebook post Come back to it in 10 minutes

 Focus on collecting data rather than taking a decision instantly

 Call a group meeting and take a combined decision

14 Be empathetic

Never forget the other

person’s position Remember

how it feels to sit on the

other side of the table

Take off your shoes and put

on someone else’s, well, not

literally but you get my

point Be a listener, be

approachable, be willing to

help, and be fair

In return, you’ll get loyalty,

honesty and commitment

RESOURCES FOR YOU

• Empathy is good for you and your business - Why the Empathetic Leader Is the Best Leader

• Book - Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don’t by Simon Sinek

• Why Empathy Is The Force That Moves Business Forward

• Encourage empathy with team

building activities

CHALLENGE YOURSELF

 Practice mindfulness – be in the present moment and pay attention consciously without being judgmental A simple example is to close your eyes and feel the air flow through your body as you inhale and exhale

 Never make fun of sensitive issues and situations

 Listen to your friend, spouse, peer or child – do this mindfully Just listen and try to see the situation from their perspective

 Join communities